1. 🔥 Forms of Energy Scavenger Hunt
Get your students thinking about forms of energy with this ENGAGE activity.
Students can walk around the classroom, a wing of the school, or even their homes to find the 7 items described. Students shouldn’t require much background to complete the scavenger hunt– you can discuss all the good stuff (the content 🙃) after the hunt!
A few key points to mention:
1. Energy cannot be created or destroyed.
2. Energy can change forms.
3. Energy has many uses.
4. While we may sometimes say “produce”, “use”, or “source”, what we are always talking about is the CHANGE of energy.
Download your free Scavenger Hunt
2. 🔦 Build Dynamo Lanterns
👍👍 Building these dynamo lanterns was a blast! This is pretty simple to set up and as long as students are gentle you can reuse the sets again and again.
First, pairs built their lantern following my directions and modeling.
Then we turned off the lights and we tested them out! We discussed how energy changed forms.
Finally, they drew detailed diagrams and described the conversion from mechanical energy to light energy.
Affiliate link for Dynamo Lantern Kits
3. ✏️ Color-coded Linguistic Frames
When teaching forms of energy, I’m sure to have students describe the type of energy that is transformed into another form of energy.
Using a color-coded linguistic frame is one of my favorite simple strategies to help students gather their thoughts and present them in complete sentences.
1. Start with completing the table for each object.
2. Introduce the sentence frame. A ____ converts ____ to ____ so we ____.
3. Use the information in the table to complete the sentence frame for each object. Complete sentences! Yes!
4. 📓 Notebook Templates
With the All in One Notebook, you’ve got options. There are quite a few templates (33 actually) for forms of energy.
You can choose to focus just on MLTS (mechanical, light, thermal, and sound) OR you can do MELTS (add in electrical) OR you can choose C-MELTS (add in chemical).
There’s plenty of format options and example photos to make sure notebooking is a breeze!
See it on TPT: Energy Notebook Templates
5. 💬 Forms of Energy Science Stations
Station Activities from Energy! Science Stations
6. 🔎 Labs in a Snap
These three easy-peasy labs provide hands-on exploration to students for sound, light, and thermal energy.
1. Engagement Lab: In-straw-ments
How can we make high and low pitch sounds using straws?
2. Exploration Lab: Light Moves
How do objects interact with light?
3. Elaboration Lab: Hot, Hot, Hot!
How do particles move in water at different temperatures?
“The labs are so engaging and provide a great hands-on experience for students to be able to explore the various forms of energy. I found that my students continually referred back to the lab experiences throughout the unit. The Science Penguin Labs are awesome resources!” -Mrs. Watkins, 3rd grade teacher
See it on TPT: Energy Labs in a Snap
7. 🗒 All Things Forms of Energy
Are you looking for ALL THINGS energy?
This Forms of Energy Activity Pack bundle includes:
- notebook templates
- labs
- stations, slides and notes
- a flipbook
- task cards
- vocabulary review
- digital activities
…for teaching about thermal, mechanical, sound, electrical, and light energy.
I created this particular bundle of 10 resources for teachers who want a variety of amazing activities for learning about different forms of energy.
“WOW! Awesome product that is thorough and easy for the teacher to use in a variety of ways. Students were engaged and loved using the various resources. Great bundle.” -Erine, 4th Grade Teacher
See it on TPT: Forms of Energy Activity Pack
See it on my site: Forms of Energy Activity Pack
Forms of Energy Teaching Tools
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10 thoughts on “7 Ideas to Teach Forms of Energy”
Oh my gosh, this covers so much! Awesome share!
This is a great resource, thank you!
I love this series…seeing everything all in one place is simply amazing!
Omg…. I think I love you for this. Seriously. I am brand new at homeschooling and I get so overwhelmed because there is just SO much! Stuff like this….. you just made my life a whole lot easier. Thank you :,)
I’m glad it’s helpful! Thank YOU!
Can you send me the print outs you used or do I have to purchase them somewhere? Thank you !
Hi Melissa. There are links to my the items in my TpT shop depending on which pages you want. Thanks!
Ari
This is tremendous. I honestly love your work!!
Good morning,
I have your Notebook Bundle for 5th Grade Texas, and I unable to find the pictures for the Anchor Chart. Are those pictures in a different package?
Hi there. Which anchor chart are you referring to?
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